The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hello, I'm brand new to the forum and need some help, I am attempting to help a friend with no internet access identify his fordson, he believes it's from 1955 and the only badging on it says fordson major, it's a 4 cylinder diesel he believes it's a perkins engine, I'm having trouble finding accurate info on these tractors as sites I've come accross have said that the perkins was only a 6 cylinder and the 4 cylinder was a ford kerosene? personally besides cars and small engines the only tractor experience I have is on our AC, and I thought they were hard to get parts for, I was wrong, what we need is a head gasket for the engine and we are having no luck, not to mention that my friend guessed it was a headgasket and took it apart and then was told it might have been an injector pump issue all along, any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you

Hi Mike,
Welcome to the forum.

Here's a couple of pictures of a '55 Fordson Major with a 4 cylinder Fordson Diesel.




Does your friend's tractor look like that? If so, the serial number should be stamped on the flange behind the starter. If its not there it should be stamped on the block under the front injector. If you post that number here, someone can tell you when it was made. Engine parts for these are pretty easy to find.

Hi Mike,
Welcome to the board.

JC has shown you a Fordson Major Diesel from around the 1955 era. These tractors were built from 1952 in various guises until 1964 when Ford changed the range to the '000nd series.

Whilst it is true to say that this tractor was equiped from its concept with a new Fordson engine that was designed to have parts common to the petrol, kerosene and diesel versions, the engine had no Perkins input at all. In fact it was not until the 1960's that Perkins started building direct injection engines. However the kerosene engine was not popular here in England and many were traded in for the new diesel powered tractors. These tractors had the kerosene engine removed and the tractor was repowered with a Perkins L4 and many were exported.

It is therefore possible that your friend does indeed have a Perkins engine. However I would suspect that he has fallen into the trap of: British Diesel therefore must be Perkins.

The Major for some reason did not find favour in the US unlike the rest of the world where it was used for many applications both in and out of agriculture. In fact, at one time Fordson Majors made up the vast majority of tractors being built as here in the UK we were building and exporting more tractors than the rest of the world added together.

thanks for the response, he has the serial number off of it, I'll go and get it and post it and if I can I'll get some pictures of the tractor and the engine I'm just trying to help him avoid ordering a bunch of engine gasket kits that don't fit, I forgot why he was told it was definitely a Perkins engine, it may very well be like you said an assumption based on where it was produced, I'll get the serial number and I'll try for pictures, though it's gonna be ugly, someone repainted it yellow at one point in it's life and it has a bucket loader and excavator attachment on it if I remember correctly, thank you

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16985804@N00/
Hello, I don't know how to post pics directly but this is the link to my photobucket account with the pics, the serial number is 1336470 again any help identifying the model and the engine would be greatly appreciated, and let me know if there is any specific part to take a picture of to help identify it, thank you.

Mike,
That serial number is close to the one that I posted the picture of. It has the normal Fordson engine, so it should be easy to get parts for. Here's a link to the place that I get most of my parts from, but there are several others. http://www.bare-co.com/
Looking at the picture, I'd say the head gasket has been leaking, but I'll leave all the technical stuff to Brian. He knows more about these old Majors than all the rest of us together!

Mike,

That is an early Fordson Major Diesel. Word of warning, get the injectors out of the head. It is very easy to chip the nozzels off with the head off as they protrude through and can easily get bashed. Been there, done that, paid the bill

thanks guys, I'll pass on the bit about the injectors to the guy working on the tractor, hopefully no damage has been done yet, now if that is the fordson engine would that make it technically a kerosene engine? that's part of the confusion I have come across from other sites and parts store sites, the owner has been on vacation fishing for a couple of weeks and i still don't know what the original problem was except that it finally wouldn't start, I'm going to check out that site for the parts, thanks guys

Mike,
Its a direct-injected diesel engine. A kerosene engine has spark plugs. The web site that I told you about only lists parts for diesel Majors, so that should help cut down on the confusion. Keep us posted on the progress on the old girl.